As I sit here nervously reading the news and awaiting my next shift at the hospital tonight, I cannot help but wonder what the world will look like when the coronavirus pandemic passes. While I cannot predict when this will be, or how much more damage this outbreak will cause, I do know that medicine will never be the same. Here are some thoughts on what could change and the …
5 things that should change in medicine after COVID-19
Upon walking through the revolving door that guards the hospital’s main entrance, I was ushered by security staff to join the queues of my peers, also seeking passage to their respective posts.
“The new policy,” the officer explained, examining my hospital ID to confirm that I am, indeed, an employee. Visitors are no longer allowed.
“Please sanitize your hands,” another instructed me, as he pointed to the neat rows of surgical masks …
I’m a physician and I’m not a hero
Physicians are, without a doubt, some of the most educated professionals around. You spend endless hours studying, taking tests, and jumping through academic hoops in the name of good grades and patient care. But is the education you are receiving truly preparing you for the practice of medicine today?
Health care is now considered almost exclusively a business term. And yet there is a lack of business taught in medical school. …
Lack of professional and personal financial literacy is a primary driver of burnout
Doctors are begging the public for basic protective equipment. Us. The United States of America. Supposedly the most advanced, most privileged nation in the world.
We are in a pandemic dumpster fire. There has been no centralized movement to tackle this escalating threat. Every hospital, city, county, and state has been left to flounder on its own. I’m not the only one who’s noticed we’re completely floundering, right? Doctors …
Physicians are disposable and are taken for granted
Since the coronavirus outbreak, reports of anxiety have increased, especially among physicians. Physicians face numerous stressors, including fears of contracting the coronavirus, concerns about potentially infecting loved ones, PPE shortages, testing delays, and frequently making quick decisions with limited information.
Common symptoms of anxiety are increased worrying about one’s self and/or loved ones, difficulty sleeping, difficulty eating, poor concentration, increased heart rate, hyperventilation, and struggling to control worrying.
Here are five ways …
5 ways to manage anxiety during the coronavirus pandemic
Eighty-five percent of health care facilities used locum tenens temporary doctors in 2019 to address their staffing shortages or gaps in coverage.
Physicians are turning to locum tenens work to allow them more flexibility, extra income, the ability to travel, and exposure to new and evolving patient care environments. But what they are likely not aware of is the price tag on their heads if or when they decide to consider …
Interested in locum tenens? Beware of fees.
As we have literally overnight plunged into the world of telemedicine, I wanted to caution everyone to stop and think about something.
As an avid telemedicine provider, I truly believe in helping support our patients and the public. However, if anyone is an employed physician or medical provider, please keep reading.
If your practice did include telemedicine before, this may be a non-issue. But if it didn’t, you need to ask these …
Advice to employed physicians plunging into telemedicine
As I hug my younger daughter’s little head at school drop-off, the calming aroma of her hair fills me with peace. She scurries across the schoolyard toward her 2nd-grade classroom, her big backpack bouncing up and down, seemingly with its own agenda and dwarfing her tiny frame. As soon as I leave the school, my focus switches.
I’m at the edge of my patient’s hospital bed, reviewing the day’s treatment goals. …
This doctor was called a bitch at work. Here’s what she did next.
Our goal in medical school is to learn how to preserve the quality of life. Yet, in order to better understand human life, we are immediately faced with death by means of anatomy lab.
From week one, we are tasked with removing the skin and fat from a cadaver’s thorax — desensitizing ourselves to death enough so we may cope with dissecting someone’s beloved mother or adored husband. It’s difficult not …
How death is a blessing and a burden
I am a middle-aged gastroenterologist almost 15 years out of training. I have a chronic medical disease and had a bout with lymphoma two years ago, both of which require me to stay indefinitely on immunosuppressive drugs.
I am certainly not the only health care worker who is scared. Most winters that I will contract the flu or another illness from patients who want their screening colonoscopies performed while sick, from …
Why this immunocompromised doctor wants you to stay home
Medicine is a difficult calling. You already know the sacrifices. As an undergraduate, you gave up time with friends and family so you could be accepted into medical school — where you worked even harder.
You understand that the practice of medicine requires you to take responsibility for the care of others … and the emotional toll that comes with it.
In this profession, it’s easy to feel like you’re alone. Our …
Be the physician who supports other doctors
Much is written about the advantages for primary care physicians and patients of working within a retainer model, direct primary care, concierge-type care model. Little is written about the downside or disadvantages. It is time to shine a light on the benefits and challenges of concierge and standard models through an experienced lens, particularly as drivers of burnout and the primary care shortage loom so large. The phase of a …
A physician leaves concierge medicine after 13 years
For weeks, the news has been all about COVID-19 and its impact beyond Wuhan, where it emerged. Just two days ago, in fact, the first case reports surfaced in the county where I live. Overnight, preparations have leapt a notch. Many will work from home. Students will learn online. Even the gym where I climb with my son e-mailed regarding steps to minimize transmission. Like most of you, however, by …
4 injuries all physicians face
The elevator area on the ground floor of our hospital is split. As you enter, the common elevators are on the left, and to the right is a set of double doors, with a sign posted reading, “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.” And behind those doors are the employee elevators, elevators for hospital beds, and large elevators where we can run a code while traveling up or down.
The employee elevators are private, …
Riding the hospital common elevator
An excerpt from Health Design Thinking: Creating Products and Services for Better Health.
Design is the ancient practice of shaping materials to achieve goals and express beliefs. Human beings and other creatures make tools and build structures in order to survive, thrive, and dominate their surroundings. Unlike …
What is human-centered health care and why is it important?
I wish that I didn’t have the experience of working 34 years as a nurse. I know the big picture in a hospital. A recent article stated that the Twin Cities, where I live, has 500 ICU beds, 450 ventilators. As of last Friday, those were 95 percent full.
Apparently, there are new CDC guidelines stating that healthcare workers can wear surgical masks when N95 masks are not available, but the …
The worst-case scenario for our hospitals in a severe pandemic
As a cardiologist, a mom of three school-aged kids, a physician’s wife, and associate dean of student affairs, I am acutely aware of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected our communities. In this time of constant change and concern, it is important to find joy in whatever we can. This week is Match Week. Instead of our senior medical students celebrating their accomplishments together, they are social distancing and foregoing …
7 ideas for an alternative Match Day
An excerpt from Of Plagues and Vampires: Believable Myths and Unbelievable Facts from Medical Practice.
The concept of a vampire predates Bram Stoker’s tales of Count Dracula – probably by several centuries. But did vampires ever really exist?
In 1819, 80 years before the publication of Dracula, John …
Being a medical student during your clinical years imparts a certain feeling of invincibility. For many of us, this is our first-time taking care of patients. Our history-taking and physical exam skills are being honed like superpowers. Our clinical knowledge is growing. We begin to take ownership of patients as our own.
With all but two clinical rotations left in my third year, and at the peak of my own feelings …
7 reflections on grief and personal loss as told by a medical student
Please print or share these graphics that can help educate the public on the do’s and don’ts of COVID-19 coronavirus. Courtesy of family physician Kevin Nguyen.
(Please click to enlarge.)
Coronavirus: The simple infographic guide to protect you and your community
Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.
